Jakarta – Contradicting earlier comments by a Cabinet minister, the Vice President promised on Monday that firm action would be taken against Muslim hard-liners who forcibly closed down Christian places of worship as they were damaging religious harmony and taking the law into their own hands.
"We have talked to the police. We must be firm now. If we have a problem, we must not resort to violence in order to solve it. Instead, we must resolve it together as the nation belongs to all of us," Vice President Jusuf Kalla told leaders of Islamic organizations gathered at the Muhammadiyah headquarters in Central Jakarta.
Only on Saturday, Minister of Religious Affairs Maftuh Basyuni joined the police in saying that the hard-liners would not be punished, arguing that they were only acting against "illegal congregations".
The anti-Christian attacks continued on Saturday, with a hard-line Muslim group calling itself the Anti-Apostasy Alliance Movement (AGAP), closing one unofficial place of worship in Margahayu Raya. AGAP leader Muhammad Mu'min Al Mubarak claimed that local residents had asked the group to close the prayer house as it was unlicensed.
Also on Saturday, a mob of around 100 people shut down a Christian prayer house located in Larangan subdistrict, Kebayoran Lama, South Jakarta, demanding that its congregation move to a church in Pesanggrahan subdistrict nearby. No violence occurred as the clergyman agreed under pressure to the demand.
Monday's meeting between Kalla and the Muslim leaders had originally been planned to brief them about the Memorandum of Understanding signed by the government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in Helsinki on Aug. 15.
According to Kalla, Indonesian people of different religious persuasions should refrain from using violence when settling disputes. "We must be able to exercise restraint so that this sort of thing does not happen again. It is our responsibility to stop the violence now," he said.
Kalla mediated peace agreements to end bloodshed between Christians and Muslims in Maluku and the Central Sulawesi regency of Poso a few years ago.
Meanwhile, Muslim figures called for interfaith talks to settle the matter. "A dialog is necessary. But the dialog must be conducted in a give-and-take manner," chairman of the 30-million strong Muhammadiyah, Din Syamsuddin, said.
Din said the government had to do its part by upholding the regulations requiring permits for the establishment of houses of worship. "Violence is not the way. Muslim people must not be easily provoked into violence that will only serve to destroy religious harmony," he told reporters.
According to Din, a Muslim community would not oppose the establishment of a church as long as the necessary permits were obtained and respect shown to the local people. "But a problem of social ethics arises if a church is set up in an area where Muslims are in the majority," he said.
Tarmizi Taher, the chairman of the Indonesia Tablig Council, called on the Ministry of Religious Affairs to initiate interfaith talks to settle the issue. However, he asserted that people must respect the joint ministerial decree that requires a Christian congregation to secure approval from the local community before setting up a place of worship – something that is normally extremely difficult or impossible in practice.
Separately, National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Aryanto Boedihardjo said that police chief Gen. Sutanto had ordered local police forces to take action against anyone who violated the law.
The police would also encourage the public to report any violations to the local police instead of taking the law into their own hands.